#and also that multiple characters use him as a way to say ''uwu everyone deserves forgiveness and trust no one deserves what he went through

[perenlop]

i dont wanna sound like a person thats like “if a character is mean then theyre written poorly” but truly what makes or breaks a villain to me is whether or not youre supposed to find them complex and well intentioned deep down and they obviously arent

[tismrot]

The uwu-fication of Good Omens

I’m not saying this to piss on anyone’s parade, everyone can like whatever they want and I realize that people who are perhaps… not experienced in traumatic adult relationships and/or aren’t bitter remnants of whatever ray of light they were supposed to be - I realize their fiction will probably be (for lack of better words)… light and easy.

I also realize that due to the collective heartbreak we’ve experienced after the end of season 2, a little fluff is perhaps needed. Again, not defecating on any crowds - but, like, we did watch the same show, right?

There are some REALLY good meta out there, as well as some fics and some art that really captures the essence of both Crowley and Aziraphale, and the context they struggle within.

…And then there are fics and art/comics where particularly Crowley is reduced to this very tsundere, cranky-despite-secretly-affectionate anime character who blushes and gets ✨ve-y angy✨ whenever he gets a kiss on his cheek or something and I’m like… okay? But. That’s not Crowley, is it? (Yes, you can make him into a hemipened waifu pillow for all I care, go do what makes you happy) - it’s just… You know?

Crowley and Aziraphale are (despite their celestial origins) - at their core - two middle aged, closeted, homosexual men who used to work for two equally oppressive, evil and incompetent fascist governments. That’s why they meet on the benches in the park, like all the other agents sent from other oppressive nations and agencies. The book was written during the last years of the cold war, and during the height of the AIDS crisis. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the first meds for HIV came in 1992 - being gay and being seen with the enemy could bring about equally terrifying death sentences. Yet, they do their best to thwart their Cold War, and then, the nuclear apocalypse.

After barely succeeding, they become as close as they dare to be, and they both know they love each other. Of course they do. That’s why Crowley wants them to stop pretending they don’t. He already assumes Aziraphale knows, because HE DOES KNOW.

Crowley isn’t (canonically) an uwu angy tsundere snek. He is a miserable ex-agent screaming at his closeted, gay lover for refusing to run away with him after 6000 years of war. Crowley is the opposite of tsundere, he is an open, aching wound.

Aziraphale isn’t a kawaii angel cup of hot chocolate, he is a desperate and scared idealist who is threatened into compliance by Great Leader, and who secretly wants nothing more than to let go of all propriety and just allow himself to be happy and freely experience life and love with the man he’s wanted all along, far from all oppression both from society and Heaven.

You guys, this is a story about fighting oppression for love. I just wanted to make sure we’re all on the same side.

And perhaps I’m just old, perhaps my experiences with multiple failed relationships, friendships and my own fallen idealism tints my glasses… But I feel a certain way about all the uwu. I’m sorry. Do uwu if you want. I’m gonna focus on the OPPRESSION, because - apparently - that’s the wall my socks stick to.

And yeah, I know this is very old man yells at cloud. Younger people (or people who just aren’t exactly like me) seeing this show or reading the book deserve the right to play around with it, just like I do. I know, I know, I know. I just needed to say this. Slay me if you must.

End of rant. Thank you for coming to my depression.

EDIT: Yes, I made the Avril Lavigne thing further down. Yes, I am a hypocrite. I’ve made my peace with this.

[grain-my-beloved]

Yknow what? I'd actually go so far as to say that, as much as ive seen it complained about, it's actually pretty hard to "UwU" or "Woobify" Grian within the context of yhs.

I mean. It's possible if you go really extreme with it, but it's hard.

Grian at his core is actually a primarily decent person most of the timeand is a primarily innocent party in most things. One who goes through a Lot.

If you really think about it Grian's moral compass isn't too far off normal basic human morality. He's often anxious and hesitant when faced with any involvement in criminal activity, he's frequently dismayed and offput by suggestions of violence (the less deserved the more dismay is expressed as well), he's disappointed and frustrated at seeing the people around him do fucked up things, he's almost always polite with a good head on his shoulders when faced with a kind or reasonable person. Even well into ts, long after first coming back to Japan, Grian is still incredibly uneasy and fidgety with the suggestion that he take part in violence, I mean, remember that time he, Taurtis, and Sam were tasked with killing Geode and Grian not only initially tried to refuse outright but then checked in shakily with the other two multiple times just to confirm if they were really going to kill someone. Grian's typically the character most likely in the entire series to be incredibly put off by and very hesitant about doing bad things (especially to people he's not one million percent certain deserve it).

And while one could argue that we can't really praise his moral compass for being hesitant about involving himself in crime/wrongdoing when he often ends up participating anyways. Actions speak louder than words and all. However I disagree. The fact that Grian vocally does not wish to be involved in this kind of thing and has proven to behave on the more reasonable and polite side when acting independently in relation to likewise level headed people....is Very important. In fact, in actual legal cases, oftentimes a factor in trying individuals is the question of whether they would commit the crime in question indepently or under normal circumstances. This is the basis for necessity, duress, and insanity pleas, amoung other's. People who would not act the way they did in a certain scenario under normal circumstances are often liable to be judged favourably in their actions. In fact, speaking of duress pleas, Grian's got a pretty solid one for a lot of his actions. The times Sam or Yuki held a knife to his throat or the times police threatened to kill him if he doesn't comply with orders or any alike incidents. In cases where duress isn't applicable to Grian's behaviour there are oftentimes incidents in which an outright case for violence in self defense can be made. In fact, most of Grian's circumstances leave him very viable to be judged sympathetically on a legal standpoint. The fact that he was a minor, the fact that he had no apparent history of violence or crime, the fact that he was in a severely abusive relationship with a criminal and entering said relationship marked the start of any sort of criminal behaviour from Grian, any criminal behaviour from Grian always being in a group setting never lead by himself, the fact that he always clearly and openly protests when pulled into these group settings, the duress and self defense pleas that are applicable to pretty much all incidents in which he does engage. Which are also all factors that can and should be accounted for on. a moral basis as well, obviously. And like, Grian has a reputation for being arrogant, cynical, and rude or whatever, but he's really not. He very rightfully calls out other people's horrible bullshit and makes snappy remarks towards his abuser but that's the opposite of a problem and Grian's proven himself more than capable of reasonable civility towards reasonable people. Grian just isn't the selfish arrogant disrespectful criminal that he's sometimes implied to be and in fact he's largely innocent- or absolvable, if you'd rather- in most of the things levied against him. Grian's not a literal saint giving to the needy and taking care of orphans in his spare time but he's a decent guy overall???

And hey, speaking of that super abusive relationship Grian landed in. Let's not forget the impact of that situation. Sam was undoubtedly abusive towards Grian. He threatened Grian's life various times, he basically told Grian he was nothing compared to Taurtis, he shoved plastic down Grian's throat and laughed when he choked, he got Grian locked up in solitary confinement through complete lies just because he thought it'd be entertaining I guess, he forced Grian to kiss an abnormally large amount of people against his will (some of these instances sam recorded despite being asked not to), he himself tried to make out with Grian without consent while Grian was sleeping in his own private room, he forcefully dressed Grian up in feminine cosplay meant to be ~attractive~ complete with fake breasts, he lied to Grian about the gender identity of someone Grian dated as a joke (his words) and lightly mocked Grian afterwards, he locked Grian in a basement for three days straight and it's unclear whether or not he was planning to let him out anytime soon, he dragged Grian into a closet with school staff despite Grian's very vocal distress and discomfort then scolded Grian for considering reported it when this staff member made uncomfortable comments on the outfit Sam had forced Grian into, Sam offered to give Grian to another guy who made a similar uncomfortable comment later on as part of some trade, he consistently dragged Grian against his will into criminal activity whether by threatening him, tricking him into participating, or just altogether falsely implicatng him, amoung Many other things. And every step of the way Sam did his best to completely gaslight Grian. He used every gaslighting technique in the book. Telling blatant lies (for example, "i would never stab taurtis", "you are taurtis", "grian's crazy and he stabbed taurtis"), he denies doing shit to Grian that Grian knows damn well he did ("i would never stab taurtis"). He hard projected his bs onto Grian (from blaming grian for 'making' sam do awful shit sam did to claiming grian actually fullstop did the awful shit sam did). He was just constantly trying to turn people against Grian (convincing yuki and taurtis to back him up in calling grian a bad manipulative friend and insisting he needed to apologize for 'making' sam horrifically abuse him. arriving in the police station and instantly without hesitation telling them grian was crazy and dangerous and pinning his own crimes on grian. having taurtis back him up and help scold grian for getting mad about being locked in the basement for days). Telling Grian he's crazy (taurtis incident again, solitary confinement incident, the time sam kissed grian without his consent while he slept and grian got mad). Telling everyone else that Grian's a manipulative liar (taurtis incident again, solitary confinement incident again). Yknow. Gaslighting. Sam was just so unbelievably abusive. In like. Every possible way. Which adds a LOT of trauma to Grian. That on top of his parents abandoning him as a little kid too because we couldn't leave it at severe abuse.

Grian's not a bad person. And he's certainly a very sympathetic person. Which is why it would be hard to woobify yhs Grian. It would be hard to make a very sympathetic very sad character egregiously sympathetic and sad. His whole arc is getting abandoned by his parents, going to visit his friends, and getting violently abused and forced into a multitude of disturbing activities against his will for an extended period of time.

One could argue that sure Grian isn't a bad person and sure Grian's got a pretty sad life, but certainly a lot of people are guilty of making Grian more helpless and scared and generally 'pathetic' than he is in canon.

To which I reply...not really?

Grian already doesn't have half the fight response people ascribe to him throughout the series. That was a whole other post but honestly Grian's response to traumatic situations is very frequently to cave to them and he's got a much stronger submissive streak than people often admit. I mean, Grian was asked to dress up as his best friend who just got stabbed "to make things less awkward and make me feel better" and he did it within ten seconds of being asked without the others even needing to threaten him at all. Grian does express quite a bit of despair, fear, and submissive tendency in canon when faced with dangerous or traumatic situations. And while it's possible to go a bit too far with that if you consistently leave out the token fight entirely, I see people swing way too far un the opposite direction way too often. There's a reason Grian never actually killed Sam in canon. There's a reason Grian never made a serious attempt to get him arrested for his crimes. There's a reason Grian never just left. When Sam found Grian after he ran out of the gym during the Taurtis incident? Grian didn't lunge for Sam. There was no serious altercation between the two. Grian scrambled back and tearfully babbled platitudes while shoving plastic down his own throat on command. And even beyond that, a lot of the interpretations accused of making Grian too helpless/scared/'pathetic' are works that involve Grian processing trauma years after the fact. Which. Even if Grian was the most aggressive on edge fighter in the history of trauma responses during the traumatic events? People don't process their trauma after the fact the same way they instinctively respond in the moment. Even if Grian never shed a tear throughout any of the traumatic ordeals he experienced, it would be far from unrealistic behaviour for him to still process after the fact by panicking and sobbing his eyes out regularly. Which, again, Grian wasn't even all that fight oriented while it was happening so panic and tears isn't even super far removed from his actual in the moment responses let alone processing after-responses. It's just. It's really hard to "UwU" Grian tbh. He's a decent person, he went through hell (his own words actually), and he was never even really very effectively aggressive when he did. And while it's possible to dip too far into that territory, far more often I see things swung egregiously far in the other direction.

[miraculermarinette]

After watching some episodes from season 4, this show has started to make me dislike Adrien. I'm annoyed by the fact that whenever he's in the wrong, the narrative frames the situation in a way that's supposed to make us feel bad for him.

It also follows this old tired trope of villainizing the other party whenever they defend themselves. When the woman stands up for herself and calls out the guy for his inappropriate advances, she's depicted as a b*tch, and the poor guy who's been rejected multiple times "Just can't catch a break" or "He just can't help himself".

I hate how whenever Marinette messes up (Not counting her obsessive behavior), the audience isn't expected to pity her because she's wrong, as it should be. However, that same standard isn't held for Adrien. He can almost kill one of Ladybug's teammates and the narrative will try to make everyone else apologize or feel guilty except him.

If that's not bad enough, you have his god-awful fanbase which only makes me dislike Adrien even more. You have grown adults defending this boy's immature and inappropriate behavior while simultaneously simping for him. In their eyes, he can do absolutely no wrong, and the show apparently did him dirty because he's not the primary protagonist, yet the entire narrative treats him like he's perfect and everyone else in his life is flawed. I'm also convinced that if people I didn't find Adrien attractive, he would be getting way more hate.

Adrien himself isn't even that interesting, it's his family history that's interesting. He's never carried the show, he barely contributes to being a hero, and worst of all, he's painted as this golden boy both in and out of the show, but in reality, he's a spoiled, entitled, unfunny, bland, idiotic, brat. Any sort of redeeming qualities he had was shafted in this season.

🔥🔥

Go off!

I hate how sexist and racist the writers are and the fans don't even care about that because their fav is not framed in the wrong.

Adrien did kill Aeon by mistake in the ny special but we were made to feel bad for HIM and not the mom that lost her daughter. What's worse is that he just quit after that and left the entire responsibility on Ladybug. Adrien needs to stop quitting all because he is sad. Marinette never quit no matter how sad she is and she never throws herself pity parties.

The trope of villainizing women who stand up for themselves is also very common in Indian movies which just makes me hate it more. Everytime when the male lead or chat noir disrespect their personal space and the girls stand up for themselves, the males pull out their "uwu I am sad " back stories and guilt trip the females to make them feel bad for breaking their hearts. Miraculous perfectly sums up every Indian Movie ever. Also, Lila and Chloe sometimes disrespect Adrien’s space like Chat noir does with Ladybug but the girls are framed as wrong for that while Chat is right and deserves her love.

And you are so right about his stans!. Adrien stans never accept chat's harrassment towards lb and say how creepy we are for calling him a harasser. It is still possible to like a character and acknowledge his flaws but Adrien stans don't do that. Their hypocrisy and double standards are so infuriating and they would blame Marinette for doing something while actively excusing Adrien if he does the same thing.

The funny thing is, when kids see miraculous, they can immediately figure out Marinette’s obsession is wrong but can't do the same with Adrien and any other character. I have proof as I also was in the same place once and I have a sister and three cousins who still think Adrien is perfect. And all of this is because Adrien cannot learn from his mistakes because he can't do wrong.

Honestly, if the writers can't treat boys and girls the same way, they need to be fired or at least given a smaller position in the writing team and replaced by good ones. And please PLEASE hire some female writers who actually know how girls act.

The fact that this is a girl power show is really insulting.

[imagining-in-the-margins]

Hi! You often give alot of insight into anons like this and your my fave CM blog so that's why I'm here! So I'm finishing up the last seasons (and lord it is hard to get through) and they just introduced Max and I cannot stand her. She was just so rude and it felt like she had 2 different personalities the entire time she was on screen. And I worried that this meant I was like hating women because I don't like other female characters like Maeve, JJ, Hailey, and Seaver. But then I started thinking and I honestly think it's cause these Characters are women poorly written by men. But then I wondered how they created likeable Characters like Emily, Kristy, Blake, Tara, and Penelope (leaving out others like Savannah because they're under developed in my opinion) I don't know what's the difference in the writing for these Characters or of there isn't any at all and I'm just being hateful in a way. What are your thoughts?

Ah, I think about this a lot. Thank you for thinking I’m interesting enough to answer this, also!

I think you’ve really hit the nail on the head with the writers doing a poor job at most of their female characters. However, I think it’s possible (and very common in this fandom) for people to dislike any character Spencer showed an interest in, which is also problematic and rooted in internalized misogyny. To me, it all comes down to why you dislike the characters.

(A LOT More Below - Bit of a Rant)

The first step I took when reflecting to see if this was my problem was rewatching and seeing which female characters I loved. Along with the ones you listed, I also found a number of side characters I greatly enjoyed, including Lila, Austin, Dr. Linda Kamura (from Amplification, the anthrax episode), Einstein, Megan Kane, and a few other random case characters. So, right off the bat I found multiple characters who Spencer showed an affinity for. I also greatly enjoyed Cat’s character, although I found her to be underdeveloped in canon (Fanon has done a good job, IMO) and often contradictory in her character design.

If you didn’t like any of these women, and your reason is related purely to Spencer’s reactions to them, chances are you might be suffering from a bit of jealousy rather than improper character design - not that you need to like them all (or the ones that I like), but because they are all very different. You should, theoretically, find something to enjoy about at least one of them.

But the CM Writers have a TERRIBLE habit of writing women that are easy to hate.

There’s a bunch of controversy I see over Haley Hotchner, but the truth is that they wrote her to be hated. That was her sole purpose. Her character’s decisions were poorly thought out and she was shown to be malicious 80% of the time. This was intentional. She was written to personify the trope of the nagging housewife. If you dislike her, you have done nothing but follow the narrative.

That being said, you should also criticize why they wrote her this way. Because it didn’t make any sense. She married a prosecutor - a dangerous, time consuming job. She had Jack when she knew he was with the BAU. Why did she randomly change her tune? Why did she suddenly demand he gives up on his dreams that she was fully aware of for years? I’d argue they wrote it like this to further the narrative of “the wife who traps you with a child to force you to do what she wants” which is garbage writing. I wish people could look at the potential she had if they hadn’t written her like... that.

Maeve, I find, is problematic on multiple aspects and I’ve talked about it before. Her narrative was poorly thought out because as soon as they pitched the idea of a long-term love interest for Spencer, everyone (most notably Gubler) rejected it. They didn’t think it was necessary for his character, who already had a lot going on with the ignored plot lines of his drug addiction and mother.

There were multiple problems associated with her character that were never addressed. The fact she essentially just took advantage of a patient because she was bored, she seemed to “correct” his interests and show annoyance when he disagreed with her, she lied about having a fiance, she was shown to be considering breaking up with him... there’s a lot.

Her character is poorly written. It had a lot of potential, but they just kind of stopped caring once they decided to kill her off. She had more faults shown on screen than redeeming qualities. For many, they liked her because they see there was a potential that we’ll never see (fair). But for people like me, we interpret it as a idealized fantasy of what could have (but probably wouldn’t have) been, which is not healthy for Spencer.

JJ is an interesting character because you can feel the constant struggle between AJ Cook and the writers. They really sabotaged JJ at every step of the way. I’ll be honest and say that I think there are some reasons to hate JJ, but they aren’t the reasons I see most often. Almost all of the JJ hate I see is surrounding the idea that JJ is an evil, manipulative, jealous bitch. But.. she’s not. Even in Truth or Dare, when she pulls that asshole move that was wildly OOC for JJ (in my opinion), she isn’t shown to be jealous or cruel about it.

I think she’s the most likely target for people who’s hatred is driven from jealousy or disliking conventionally attractive women and assuming them to be bitchy by nature of looking “beautiful.” I think Lila Archer* also falls into this category.

But as I said, JJ was also written with a lot of flaws. I think it’s fair if you don’t like her character or the way she treats Spencer, but I also hope that you similarly criticize the whole team in the same way, and don’t just pity Spencer because he is smol uwu babie who needs protection.

(* Yet another reminder that I ask everyone to not message me about J Depp or Amber Heard. Reactive Abuse is an extreme trigger for me and I will block you if you try to get me to talk about it)

Seaver got a lot of hate based off one line of dialogue. I think it was a bad line. If they had left it out, there would be essentially no reason in my mind to dislike Seaver. I used to dislike her a lot, but the more I rewatch the show, the less she bothers me. She was just a young student who wanted to learn about her father/herself. She was MASSIVELY underdeveloped because they kicked her off just as quickly as they invited her in.

NO character was developed that quickly. Her scenes were a bit cringey and the plotlines were bad, and her character was mediocre. I don’t think she deserves the hate she gets. She is a lukewarm character.

I hate everything Max’s character represents. She was introduced to show that Spencer could be trained to be “normal” and it’s anti-autistic bullshit. She had no personality besides “I hate my low-brow job as a teacher and couldn’t be fucked to change it until a man told me I was smart.” She was cracking high-school-clique jokes while her family was about to be murdered. She immediately abandoned said family to make out with her boyfriend who just admitted to enjoying kissing the woman who tried to murder her family.

Her character makes absolutely zero sense. I do not understand how she is so liked. I really don’t (other than the fact that RLC is absolutely wonderful).

If they had left her character out, I think we would have been better off for it. We could have seen Spencer wrestle with defining himself by the women in his life and learning to love himself (without just replacing those women with... another... woman...)

That being said, those who cling to Max for hope of a happy ending for Spencer... I felt that. Fanon and fanfic can solve all character deficiencies. I believe in you.

So, yeah. I’d say if you’re worried about why you dislike women characters, you’re probably on the right path. I’d just reflect on why you dislike the characters you do and whether they are written as misogynistic stereotypes. It makes complete sense to reject characters written for the purpose of making you hate them, but we should all pour one out for the brilliant actresses that had characters with so much potential if not for men ruining it.

[the-ghost-king]

Interestingly enough the fandom isn't always rational with their criticism. Take Percy and Rachel for instance. A perfectly healthy cute and functional relationship dynamic, but people really hated it because it got in the way of Percy/Annabeth.

I think it can also come down to the fact that not all situations are exactly equal if that makes sense. If you have a character dynamic in couple A, that often playfully bully of fight with eachother that's a different dynamic than relationship B, where one person has trauma resulting from bullying and the other parter behaves in roughly the same way as couple A do. In that case the behavior may be seen as inappropriate. Not that this example has anything to do with the ships at hand, but I think a long form meta examining the different paralleling issues from both relationships and their validity would be easier.

Also I haven't seen anything about about Nico/Will being called toxic. Yikes, what are people saying exactly, because I don't doubt a lot of people might be projecting unconcious bias.

Oh absolutely, I may seem young but I remember the Rachel vs Annabeth ship wars all too well... I do not want to go back 😅

The rest is under a read more though, I got a little carried away talking! Also this isn't my best post on the issue by far so please feel free to check out the tags I mention later on!

(AN: I use nblm alongside mlm in this post because some nblm individuals will consider their attraction to men as gay, or queer, while others will not and those individuals are often closely connected to mlm experiences and they also deserve to talk about their thoughts and feelings if they wish. I am aware nonbinary people are not a monolith and not all nonbinary people will categorize themselves or their attraction this way, it's up to nonbinary individuals reading this to determine where they fall on what)

As for Solangelo being toxic some of the conversations revolve around the ableist nature of the ship, this is definitely most obviously a dynamic in BoO, and it's a more than fair point about the ship I don't have anything negative to say there in the slightest!

(The above parallels with the idea that Will is introduced as a "healer character" for the "sad gay kid", which is a fair criticism as well but one that's often left rather one sided, because while that is true- if it's a way Nico likes being treated (watched closely for injuries and cared for) then it's not wrong, and in ToN Will is seen overstepping Nico's boundaries which causes a healthy argument about Will doing so and he stops, so if Nico doesn't tell Will "no" or some variation he's obviously not horribly uncomfortable with the situation, or from the way it would be interpreted alongside previous text, there's fair reason to think he likes it)

The thing with Solangelo I see often is "Nico is still processing trauma, and internalized homophobia and isn't ready for a relationship" which is a huge misunderstanding on how trauma and internalized homophobia work as a whole, because the experiences can be different for everyone. You can absolutely date someone while processing internalized homophobia, you may struggle with certain things but it is absolutely doable for some people. And trauma is such a varied thing, and it's not like he's solely relying on Will either, he is seeing Dionysus for therapy and getting the help he needs! Your life doesn't have to go on hold for therapy no matter how much trauma you are sorting through! (Not disclosing my medical history or anything but I have struggled with both things and my life didn't stop for me to deal with them, I made new friends, went on dates, etc- it is possible depending on the person so the very narrow view of "this is unhealthy" and "this is impossible" rubs me wrong when it's treated as fact over opinion, because it's an opinion).

There's also constant discussions about how fandom (in current) fetishizes both Nico and Will, which I, and other mlm and nblm have spoken our own thoughts on multiple times to be largely ignored by the biggest perpetrators of this "they're overly fetishized narrative". There's also fairly consistent discussion of how fandom treats Nico and reduces him to uwu small gay boy, which more often than not seems to mean "effeminate" rather than actually harmful stereotyping (yes queer men are allowed to be "girly" especially considering there is some canon text that could be interpreted with that meaning, if there wasn't a plausible way to determine canon that way I wouldn't care if people were going after others feminizing Nico a bit- but the issue is again, fact and feeling aren't the same and fandom seem to conflate the two rather often).

(Some of that ties into nonbinary Nico head canons which are common as of current, and that argument quickly becomes transphobic is people don't watch themselves... Even without bringing nonbinary Nico into the equation, headcanoning Nico as femme isn't bad or wrong, and to say otherwise becomes gender policing which is bad).

There's also this weird obsession with there being a "correct way" to ship mlm ships (specifically solangelo), which when considering it's not mlm or nblm saying those things, it becomes really uncomfortable. Especially because the wording of some posts is less "hey this is homophobic" and comes off more like people are more upset at seeing an mlm couple than at the fact that they're being shipped poorly.

All of this in combination with the constant, talking over of queer guys (specifically mlm and nblm) comes off really messed up, and yeah homophobic.

It's not something that can be pinned down to one specific thing but rather a series of smaller microagressions (which in sure most of are intended in good faith but are being filled with subconscious bias) that build up over time- which is why my concern is that solangelo is facing harsher criticism/different treatment that percabeth simply for being a queer ship.

I can't be 100% sure on that like I said, because that's something that is hard to gain tangible evidence for, or maybe even impossible :/

If there wasn't so many other small things going on alongside the harsher criticism of solangelo, I would honestly just ignore it... But the weird policing of "how to ship solangelo" while proclaiming it's "overly fetishized" all while speaking over a not insignificant number of mlm and nblm who have agreed with certain opinions, or taken time to write their own (+ some of the rhetoric that can be found on he blogs of people commonly expressing these opinions) is super uncomfortable and definitely homophobic... Even if they were treating the ship kind of weird, but treating the queer guys talking about it well and actually listening (because the current solangelo fandom probably has the highest proportion of queer guys in comparison to any other fandom I've been in with an mlm ship as of right now) I wouldn't be so bothered... But sadly that's not the case..

(I'd also like to note out of my posts criticizing the current conversations happening around the issue my post saying "listen to mlm voices" got a lot more notes than some of the other ones, which I can't say is specifically anything, because like solangelo perhaps being treated unfairly to percabeth, I am willing to acknowledge there might not be an issue- but it's weird how often mlm and nblm's posts on "listen to us" will be uplifted but never any actual criticism... Just a thought)

I detail things a little closer and in more detail in some of my posts tagged #fandom homophobia, #mlm fetishism, and #gender policing in fandom, it's not a full or comprehensive list (I've only really started speaking up in the last month or so), and it is largely solangelo specific. However I am always interested in listening to the voices of other queer guys about the issues and hearing out their thoughts as well (people aren't a monolith and I'm interested in trying to be as nuanced as possible!) and I acknowledge that although I am mlm and am going to be a little better at recognizing issues and calling them out (although I like every person am not perfect of course)

So yeah! That's a bit of the current ongoings, again not a full comprehensive list, and definitely not my best explanation ever but I think the point gets across well enough? Definitely check out my other tags if you're interested in more, there's also definitely more posts I need to make on some of the things I've seen (maybe not all of them so solangelo fandom specific, and maybe some of them even more solangelo fandom specific) but it's rather slow work in progress!

[drinking-tea-at-parties]

Friendly reminder that finding trans people "creepy" for literally just flirting with someone they like is.... not a great look. Sometimes, in real life, people flirt with each other. Everything isn't a 50k word uwu when will they notice me slow-burn where everyone avoids talking about their feelings forever. People are allowed to be open about their emotions and romantic attraction. Especially trans people.

I'm not trans myself but you don't need to be a genius to notice how trans attraction is treated in media. Cis people being attracted to trans people is too often treated like some sort of joke while trans characters are portrayed as predatory and creepy for daring to thing that they have a chance with a cis person. It's bullshit and it's fucking infuriating. Trans people have just as much of a right to be flirtatious as cis people. Trans people deserve to be shown as desirable and they deserve to have their attractions taken seriously.

I'm putting this in the college tapes tag so by now I assume most of you can guess what I'm talking about so I'm gonna stop being vague about it. Some people in this hellhole keep insisting that Frankie is creepy for simply flirting with Caitlin. I have spoken to multiple trans people about how Frankie was handled and multiple of them talked about how well Frankie and Caitlin's romantic subplot was handled. I know that a couple of them have even made posts about it on here so I recommend reading their thoughts on the matter too.

The only way I could see it as being creepy is if you operate on the assumption that Caitlin automatically does not find Frankie attractive for some reason despite the fact that we were never given any reason to believe that. In fact, we are explicitly given evidence of the opposite on multiple occasions. If Caitlin found his advances inappropriate or creepy she wouldn't have asked him out. I am aware that this is a very Watsonian way of analyzing this but when you look at it from a Doylist point of view it's incredibly obvious that Caitlin was meant to be interpreted as finding Frankie attractive so if anyone starts arguing that she was pressured into it or some other bullshit Watsonian argument I'm going to lose my mind. If you have a difficult time believing that Caitlin is attracted to and romantically interested in Frankie you need to rethink your biases.

In summary: Frankie, an explicitly trans character, is allowed to flirt with Caitlin. Adults flirt with each other sometimes. Caitlin did not give us any reason to believe that she found it creepy in any way, shape or form. Frankie is not creepy or predatory for flirting with a cis person who very clearly reciprocates his advances. 

As I said, I'm not trans myself so I do not have a final say in this but I encourage my trans friends to share their thoughts on this too because you guys can probably word this better than me. There was also some stuff in the original post about Caitlin allegedly being abmiguously bi and that being bad for some reason and, as a bi person, I would probably have some opinions on that if I actually understood any part of their incredibly vague argument other than “caitlin bi.... bad.... transphobic”.

[nightwingmyboi]

Tim is the fandoms sad white boi fav, which is why there's so many ppl rushing to defend him over every other character😂. Like idk if you read fic but I can't look thru any batfam character tag w/out tripping over 500+ ~uwu sad boy tim~ fic's abt how the entire family is SO mean to him, everyone ABANDONED him, +a weird focus on how insecure he is, how much he ~doubts his place~ when like. . . He was pretty full of himself in Canon??? Idk but Tim stans r wild 😖

lmao...i really don’t want this blog turning into a tim drake hate blog i promise! Because there are things that I like about his original character, like how he wasn’t really naturally athletically gifted so he had to train a ton and work really hard and use trickery/cunning to even out the battlefield for himself, and he really holds his own. (Not that I’m trying to say he is incompetent, just compared to the superhuman level of the batfam and the hero community, he doesn’t really have a natural aptitude and I like how his hardwork has paid off). 

But. I’ve seen so many posts talking about Dick, Jason, and Damian’s flaws (people are constantly harping on Dick’s temper, etc. and everyone acknowledges that Damian was/is a brat and that Jason goes around killing people sometimes and isn’t exactly stable, but we all love these characters anyway) but I have seen like. Practically no one criticizing Tim, and even on the posts that I see taking Tim down a peg or two, the majority of the notes are just people explaining his flaws away (there are of course exceptions to this I assume, I’m just talking about what I’ve seen in my little corner of tumblr dot com). 

So yeah, what I’m saying is that Tim is very condescending (and with that condescension pretty sexist [x]) and sometimes, he sees people more as chess pieces for him to use and disregards the fact that they are people with feelings and emotions (like Bruce in this way). He spends a lot of his time as Robin trashing Jason in his head for being reckless as Robin (to be fair, DC really had an agenda to try to take the blame for Jason’s death off Bruce and put it onto the victim for some reason and Tim was a convenient mouthpiece, but still. Tim was very consistent in his thoughts towards Jason) and saying that he’ll do better. Which doesn’t exactly scream insecurity. He goes around having a girlfriend while also kissing Spoiler/Stephanie multiple times, which is a pretty freakin messy situation that no one talks about huh? (yet neither of these girls find out so once again Tim escapes any actual canon punishment). 

And with the Damian stuff, people like to act like Tim is totally in the right, but I can’t get over the initial stuff with them. Like, Bruce tells Tim that Damian was brutalized and brainwashed in the League and deserves compassion and love and Tim flat out says ‘he should earn it’. (This is just meeting Damian, before any physical confrontation). Damian is like 10 in his first appearances and I just can’t get over how much Tim lacked any sense of empathy for Damian here. A lot of their rivalry is Damian instigating, true. But he is a ten year old who doesn’t know any other way of life. Tim is freaking college age and he always seems to scoff at Damian’s progress and disregard his feelings (like with the whole putting him on a contingency list in Red Robin). 

Look, sorry to really go into Tim like this, I know he has good qualities and his own traumas too. You could make a list of bad choices/decisions for any character (and people have for all the other people in the Batfam). But it is frustrating how fanon and even canon don’t hold Tim accountable for any of his mistakes or flaws. Like, Dick acts like Batman and everyone is calling him out for it. The Titans, Batfam, and even Tim explicitly tell Dick to stop acting like Bruce/Batman a ton. But Tim acts like Batman and everyone gives him a pat on the back. Why. I think that Tim is and would be a much more interesting character if we took his flaws into account and let him struggle with them, like we do with Damian’s superiority complex. Like, the reason that Tim can sometimes come off as a bland Gary Stu is because they don’t let him have any flaws or let him make any mistakes. So yeah anon, those are my two cents on the situation. 

[we-rate-tmnt]

rate RAPH

Bro I love Raph so much, he adds such a nice layer in the dynamic with his brothers in all the series and I’ll go over a bit of this below!

1987 Raphael

Besides Rise, I feel like this Raph is an overall chill dude. He’s mainly sarcastic and his ‘brute-ness’ is in his insults. Sure he fights a lot, but it’s at around the same level of violence as the rest of his brothers. I really love that he breaks the fourth wall so directly, it’s so neat to me when characters do that, which is a reason why I like Rick and Morty and Parks and Rec (although Parks and Rec is different because it’s live-action and the characters know about being filmed. Rick and Morty has them as cartoon characters that don’t know they’re a show, or maybe not. There’s a lot of theories, but I digress). He’s voiced by Rob Paulson, who also voiced 2012 Donatello, Foot Luteniet in Rise and is the voice casting director for Rise as well (This doesn’t add anything to the rating, just thought it was neat). Sassy, fun, mentions multiple times that the reality he lives in is a children’s cartoon, he’s great.

8/10

Next up is the tiny angy boi of the early 2000’s

2003 Raphie

I love this Raph’s personality! Smart mouthed, hot-headed and quick, I wish I could fire insults as well as he could. In this version, he’s more open about how much he likes fighting and physically trains quite a bit. Although, as a character, I feel that he’s lacking and a bit dry. The only episode I can think of where his character was expanded on was the time he looked out for a kid as hot-headed as he was. After that, I can’t think of anything else. He also HATES bugs for some reason, we don’t what reason, he just hates them and I wish they had more on that. I also wished there were more episodes with just Raph and Casey, they’re fun to watch with one being angry yet smart in battle with the other being semi laid back, but rushing in. On a surface level, he’s a cool character, but since he’s not Leo, he doesn’t get the spotlight that much.

5/10

And now, my SON I seriously love him wow

2012 Raph

He’s still angry, he’s still small but he has some more fun details to him! The rips on the ends of his mask, the crack in his shell, his two pet turtles/fire tortoise (???), his nerdy hobbies. I really liked that they were showing him saying stuff like ‘tickle attack!’ and also keeping the good ol’ ‘I give a flying-!’ kind of attitude. He not only feels like a teenager, but he feels pretty fleshed out. Unlike, 2003, his bug phobia is very prominent in quite a few episodes and I think that was a fantastic decision! He has hallucinations and panic attacks, which really grounds him as a character, his phobia is something that genuinely affects him and he manages to get past it. He still despises those creepy crawlies (who can blame him) but he makes sure it doesn’t get in the way when it comes to protecting his family and friends. Also, he’s just plain adorable, even when he’s ready to murder someone. He’s also the only one out of all the turtles in the 2012 series to have a lovely romantic relationship with this BADASS ALIEN LIZARD GIRL. And she’s not just there as a romantic fill in, she’s important to the turtles space adventures and in the final season as well (despite that we hardly see her after that episode, but I’m not going to get mad about that today). Let’s see, nearly cussed, sarcastic, hot-headed but soft, adopted a cute alien fire turtle, has an AMAZING BADASS LIZARD girlfriend, some noice character progression, squishy face, hit’s quite a bit on my checklist!

He owns all my uwu’s/10

I’ve noticed that this movie has the turtles and other characters involved behave quite differently, so I’m going to add this one to my list!

Half-Shell Heroes: Blast to the Past Raph

Guys, this Raph was just so goddamn cute like bro. I feel like despite that this is supposed to be a continuation from 2012, the personalities of the characters have some pretty big changes. Raph, throughout the whole movie, seemed much kinder and seemed more open to his brothers. That pterodactyl scene just HMMMMM GOT ME IN THE FEELS. I think this rating is based mostly on cuteness, because it was a movie it can’t really do too much character development (especially for a silly one like this).

7/10

Next up is the Raph I just watched last night!

2014 Raph

I actually really enjoyed this movie! While a lot of people didn’t like the designs, I really liked them quite a bit (except for the antagonists). This Raph I think is one of my favorites, with the more ‘done with this bullshit’ attitude, gruff design and woodworking skills. I really liked how well they dealt with his relationship with his family. They showed how much he cared about everyone so much throughout the entire movie. I wrote that note down even before we got to the part with all of them seemed like they were about to die, and it shows that even before that scene, that impression of Raph is left with us. He also was able to form bonds with April very quickly because he knew that this whole thing wasn’t her fault and could see that she would still stand with him to get his brothers back. They handled his character very well and that’s hard to do with a movie. I also like the little toothpick detail and that he was so stubborn with keeping it in his mouth. Overall, a tough boi with a big heart and loves his family a lot.

9/10

Now for the newest Raph and the sweetest Raph to date!

Rise Raph

I really need to give him more attention! I really can’t give too much analysis because it’s hard for him to steal the scene for me. I only really notice Rah when a scene or episode was directly focused on him. However, when this did happen, they were always fantastic! I really liked the savage and Mrs.Cuddles episodes, which showcased Raph’s weaknesses. He’s big and strong, but I feel like that he just grew up too fast. He has to be careful with his size and strength, which are useful when it comes to protecting his brothers but he knows how much he could hurt them by accident. I really want to see when they’ll expand more on that, perhaps there was an incident involving his brothers in the past? It’s really fun to see how he’s handling the leader role and the dynamics this creates with his brothers. Just a big lovable boi with some trauma.

9/10

Next up is our good ol’ comic book turtle!

IDW Raph

The idea of him being separated from the rest of the turtles for the first couple of issues was so neat! I think it added to him getting his family bonds and making everyone’s dynamics and interactions with him different compared to the rest of the incarnations of him.  It made for an interesting connection with Casey as well. I’m still quite a ways away from the most recent chapter of this series, but will update this whenever I get to it! A good child that deserved a family and got one!

6.5/10

Storytime: I used to think his Sai’s were those little rake garden tools when I was little and would nab my mum’s to play ninja turtle if I was in a Raph mood.

[calocera]

SPOILERS FOR CATS 2019, here’s my hot takes and opinions

be warned, THIS IS LOOOONG

First off my overall opinion, i LITERALLY cannot say whether it was good or bad, like lots of critics say it just...is beyond that. It’s VERY fun and that’s all I can bring myself to say, I have LOTS of problems with it but I can’t even say that they make the movie bad. It is definitely worth watching

OPINIONS ON CHARACTERS:

Victoria: she’s good! I appreciate that they kinda left her personality blank other than her innocence since that’s pretty much how she always was, still not super thrilled with her as a main character but franchesca did the best she could

Munkustrap: I loved him! he was more of a main character than I would have expected, but they STILL cut all the charm from his lines... why do I love him then? Robbie fairchild did AMAZING background acting, whenever he was in frame he was always doing something SUPER munkustrap-y and making cute dad faces. he was dealt bad lines but he worked around it best he could. Also his legs were normal so...epic fail

Mistoffelees: 😒😒😒😒😒🤢🤢🤮 disappointed but not at all surprised...he was just a Woobie, a softboy uwu nice guy. I felt like I was seeing fanon 2013 loki in cat form. THEY MADE HIS SONG A SADBOY PITY PARTY SONG...WHY WOULD YOU MAKE THE 11 O’CLOCK NUMBER SLOW AND SAD???? Where is the smug little shit who’s vague and aloof yet confident and joyous? He was murdered by his evil homophobic shadow clone. I’m not even gunna indulge the fact that him and Victoria were a thing, I’ll go over that later. He also just constantly looked like the crying cat meme his eyes were so red and watery it was horrifying, yet somehow he wasn’t the worst character , that leads us too.....

tugger: what.the.fuck.did.you.do.to.this.boy. HE GOT THE TREATMENT I EXPECTED FOR MUNKUSTRAP! HE WAS DEMOTED TO BACKGROUND CHARACTER! not only did he not sing mr. mistoffelees, he literally did nothing other than his song, he never interacted with ANY characters besides jenny in 1 scene. I know cats has no set main characters but he’s undoubtedly one of the most important characters and he’s like...the least important named character in the movie. ALSO Jason Derulo was not sexy at all. There was NO hip thrusting NO sexy meowing NO glamrock, he was just an asshole and if I hadn’t already seen the original I would have either completely forgotten about his character or though he was the worst character. I’m so fucking angy I cannot express.

Girzzabella: ngl I expected better. Her acting was great but with the horrible effects I couldnt get invested but I’ll touch on the effects later. Her singing was good, but I expected it to carry the movie and it wasn’t at all the best song in the movie, I’d say she’s about as good as I expected she’d be but the movie itself was more enjoyable than I expected so she was less significant

Old d: she was fine, she LOOKED the part definitely, she didn’t have as large a presence as ken page but I wouldnt expect that of her. Her singing wasn’t the greatest though, her voice is fine by it’s just NOT suited to old d’s songs. I would have preferred she play a female gus bc her voice is very sweet and frail, not at all built for belting like her songs required.

Macavity: he’s just...eh. He’s basically a comic relief villain which sucks. He does practically nothing besides kidnap people, say a cheesy line, and act like a caricature of a 90s cartoon villain (and not one of the fun ones) like theres a scene where he poofs away and when he does it he goes, MACAvityyyyyyy and fades away its so unintentionally funny but it just makes him so lame as a villain. not to mention he doesnt even die at the end or get any satisfying conclusion he just gets stuck on top of a statue and his powers suddenly stop working (for some reason??)

Bombalurina: fuck that, I am simultaneously glad she only was in the macavity number bc fuck off Taylor Swift but also disappointed bc she deserved so much better.

Bustopher: 😟 never in my darkest nightmares did I think I’d see bustopher Jones deepthroat multiple crayfish but here we are. Somehow THIS was the most sexual song, I cannot begin to name the fetishes checked off by this performance bc itd hit word limit. Let me just say that I said multiple times out loud, “damn bustopher kinda a freak with it 😏😏” like I CANNOT stress how weirdly sexual it gets. And ofc its all otherwise just haha funney fat guy eat food and burp and fall down. He also breaks the fourth wall a few times which like, fuck you

Jenny: exactly what was shown in the trailer. Unfunny fat jokes and slapstick humor. Also they focused WAY too many shots on her cat pussy and I wish I was making that up. Also of note is that the cgi on the rats and cockroaches are drastically worse than the rest of the movie, like not just bad designs the effects are BAD. also they translated they whole gumbie cat fur-shedding as her wearing fake skin over her outfit which would be fine but UHH the fake fur is skin tight??? so it literally looks like shes ripping off her skin and she does it multiple times its fucking terrifying

Mungojerrie and rumpelteazer: meh, they are fine as characters, not quite as energetic as I would have liked but they didn’t massively fuck anything up? The song was horrible, they went against the beat for...some reason? Like it’s a song with a very distinct rhythm and they split up the lyrics so weirdly. I liked that they followed through with the lore of them working for macavity

Skimbleshanks: YES YESSSSSSSSSS HOLY FUCKING SHIT 💗💕💖💞💜😳😳😳😳😳😳😳💜💛🧡💚💖❤️💗 i absolutely CANNOT express how good skimbleshanks made me feel. He looks like a leather daddy with his chains and suspenders and hat and stache, I hate that I’m saying this but uh...mr skimbleshanks sir😳 we were actually screaming it was so fucking good. Watching this movie was worth it just for skimble. Unironically. I’m listening to the song as we speak. It was kinda weird that they moved the tap dancing to this song but that’s more of a detractor from Jennie’s and a plus side to skimbles since it’s good tap

Gus: good! Ian did a good job of course, no one doubted that he would.

Growltiger and griddlebone: not racist but still absolutely horrifying. One of the worst parts of the movie, I actually got squeamish looking at griddlebone a few times that’s how bad she looks

Everyone else: not that good. I couldn’t tell who was who, all their personalities were annoying, I’m on imdb as we speak trying to figure out who even was supposed to be who. Demeter is completely butchered and jemima just isn’t there, doesn’t sing her part, it all sucked man.

Tech talk:

CGI: okay so here’s the thing, the effects are good. GREAT even, the issue is how fucking horrible the designs are. The lack of cat nose, mouth, and hairy cheeks makes them all look disgusting. Also the feet. Holy fuck why do they have feet. THERES A FUCKING SCENE WHERE TUGGER GRABS VICTORIAS FOOT AND SNIFFS IT. IT LASTS LIKE 5 SECONDS. Old Deuteronomy, Gus, and Cassandra (bc she was already bald) are the only characters I’d say look anywhere close to decent, grizabella looks okay in profile but head on it’s all horrible again. its really such a shame bc the sets are gorgeous! i really hope this movie gets some form of recognition for its sets.

the editing and directing was DOGSHITTTTTTT there are SO many scenes where characters just teleport or parts where people are singing and no ones mouths are moving its really distracting

Other things:

it’s OBVIOUS that the critics calling this movie horny have never seen the original. I’d definitely say the movie is LESS HORNY than the play. It IS however waaaaaaay more uncomfortable with its hornieness, so I’d say in that regard YES, the horny stuff is much more gratuitous and off putting despite there being an overall smaller amount than the play. ie everything bustopher jones does

They changed a BUNCH of lyrics for some reason?? Like they cut verses which I understand but there are like a handful of lyrics in almost every song they just...change. like...okay? All changing lyrics is gunna do is make people who knew the songs frustrated when they can’t sing along

the dancing was incredible! shame the cg just fucking invalidates all of it bc your mind doesnt register it as real people doing real moves

OKAY THE FUCKING CATNIP SCENE so when taylor swift showers everyone in catnip they all just fucking start moaning and go FULL HORNY its TOO MUCH like misto full on does an o face like eyes rolled back mouth open  and munkustrap is like ass up panting i still havent processed it im fucking terrified to encounter it again. they cut the orgy? yet added THIS??? k

WHY did they take 2 of the most iconic characters who FREQUENTLY interact and just

a. Never even have them make eye contact

b. Make 1 a background character

c. Completely change the personality of the other one

On the topic of Victoria/misto: I am just still at a loss as to why they thought it’d be a good idea? They completely removed Plato and for what? This? Pathetic. It’s worth noting the weirdly munkustrap has WAYYY more chemistry with both Victoria AND mistoffelees then they did with each other (there’s a part where it looks like misto and munk are about to kiss for some reason?? munk ALSO gets all touchy feely with skimbleshanks???) anyways munkustrap king moments

tldr; its worth watching, the best parts were the sets, the dancing, skimbleshanks, and munkustrp fucking CARRIES the weight of the world with his face acting. the worst things were a big fat tie between bustopher, tugger,misto,jenny,growltiger and griddlebone, and the godawful design choices

[spnreactionblogging]

DESPAIR

SPOILERS BELOW / tw suicide sort of

ah the title really does sum this up. I am filled with such dread going in. I know cas gets sent to super hell, I know the destiel shippers are declaring it canon (but then, when haven't they), and I've heard from a reliable source that the show officially as of just now is queerbaiting for real by making it vague and easy to ignore it instead of actually confirming anything. plus nobody seems to give a fuck about jack, as usual, and sam didn't get to say goodbye? god how can this get better???? I hope buckleming got to fucking murder castiel! that would really improve this for me!!! the cherry on the shit sundae for real so okay here goes. ugh. I have this angel's envy bourbon at 1PM, oops. I feel like I will need it for this one more than the others I also am ensconced in my castiel trenchcoat + "be super good" shirt, and cas, crowley, and sam the q-pals are joining me. dean is banished to remain in the tote bag they live in. god I want to scream. this fucking synopsis "With the plan in full motion, Sam, Dean, Castiel and Jack fight for the good for the common goal." oh the plan to use Jack as a suicide bomb???? great idea. lol I hate this. whose "common good"????????? ah but yes dean runs a dictatorship right. no wonder chuck butts heads with him dean looks so fucking smug in the amazon prime video app, hovering over the episode where cas will die horribly. fuck. there is nothing that can emotionally prepare me for this episode the show is going to end with sam and dean because it started with sam and dean and chuck/the IRL writers are bitter about it I guess??? delete fucking everything god, very fucking cute of dean to be like WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING!!! you fucking piece of shit you forcememed this to go as quickly as possible because you want Jack fucking dead, don't pretend you care god. fuck. jack apologizing for dying, to the empty. I hate everything so much ah, so that's why the opening title screen has been that. gross. horrible. a jack singularity is that it? really? jack's dead? just like that. okay. awful. oh he's MAYBE dead. reassuring. I see that briana buckmaster and jim beaver will be joining us my cat is sitting in front of the TV trying to prevent me from watching this, trying to save me from myself oh and felicia day oh this one's written by robert berens, I mostly trust him I think sam should've photocopied the book first oh hey RSJ directed this one I'm glad to have rachel miner back in any capacity that's... alpha/omega on the side there? makes sense I hope it's a fake book god I love sam sitting on the like. what is that, weird equipment panels? more confirmation sam is queer, you heard it here what leverage does dean even think he has cool jack's just getting tortured now "the boy is still useful" at least billie isn't pretending to care about him. oh she left the book thank fuck cas goes to him right away, please hug this child alcohol is not gonna help you guys sleep oh here's dean's half-assed apology. "sorry not sorry that I just couldn't stop, I couldn't help it, I just wanted to get what I wanted, and now that I didn't get what I wanted, sowwy uwu I guess" "you've snapped me out of worse" yeah don't minimize this, sam oh yeah michael exists. I notice dean refers to him as michael and not including adam. way to go I notice that sam does not drink right away "to somehow" those eggs look great "no guns at the table" is a solid rule not only for how miserable that is, but because everything surrounding firearms is a carcinogen and doesn't need to be near food please love yourself charlie please eat good eggs am I supposed to know stevie, was she part of the alternate universe, I still like never watched most of 10-13 oh we're gonna kill MULTIPLE queer characters in this episode, awesome. we gonna kill charlie AGAIN??????? we brought her back just to kill her off, AGAIN? LIKE KEVIN? and bobby I guess?? can I just say how much I hate the concept of a "final boss fight" like why is it always ending in a fight, why is violence always the answer, and why do we feel like one final violent action will solve all the problems huh charlie's shirt looks like a tycho album cover okay so I didn't forget stevie, she was brand new? maybe? I love cas and jack :( feels strange because this all sucks there's no such thing as destiny, jack don't fucking die for sam and dean and 'the world' damn right, cas, he doesn't need "absolution" well that's true for you, cas, you care because he's him. dean just wants to use him cas and jack are good. charlie this was so not your fault. as usual this is the winchesters' fault. tell 'em charlie!!! get 'em!!! you're not sorry, dean. "What now?" is a huge fucking mood, dean oh, greg! our old friend! greg was a real one (but not anymore) yeah eileen's screwed. this includes sam too. and dean i guess. sam is a good person who cares about people despite dean's best efforts to stop him I can't see who he's texting. are cas and jack in the back? poor eileen :( god poor sam having to basically get eileen in front of eyewitnesses who can attest that she disappeared cas and jack are in the backseat yeah I wish he'd tell her she's never gonna reply now yeah she's gone. interesting use of technology that they couldn't've done earlier in the series, to show she was typing but then stopped god that's awful. fuck. "If I let myself go then I'll lose my mind. I can't, right now." that's a huge fucking mood sam let's just postpone all that grief for later. gotta shove it down. huge fucking mood. god I'm so sorry somewhere central... the... bunker? don't split everyone up dean, fuck yes revenge is definitely the answer. killing things is the answer. "not having a choice" is obviously the answer. you fucker we get a sam and dean hug but where's the one for cas. you can like... see it in sam and jack's eyes that they are worried they're never gonna see them again. I'm horrified that cas isn't getting to say goodbye to jack nor sam. I can't handle this. I guess this scene is where they took that last group photo that misha posted back in march? RIP :( oh hey donna jack, that feeling is TheDepression oh gas-n-sip sam's sweet to try to give jack some autonomy here instead of having him just... being shuffled around like baggage. is that eileen's car then this music is intense don't burn the fucking library also wow dean with the reaper blade again is oof. wow. yikes. dean is become death, destroyer of worlds for real. jesus that is fucking horrifying to see. aren't you, dean? aren't you a bringer of death. remember when you hated doing that back in season... 4? 5? later? dean has learned nothing. sam's been trapped in a silo before hasn't he. or that panic room or something. donna is sweet. jack is good. jack deserves better. sam :( donna is very kind I like hearing jody and garth mentioned even if they're not in this episode (?) oh hey charlie sam at least knows how you feel, charlie I like this set god I've missed jim beaver is jack going around with spraypaint? I'm like oh god there's no ventilation. I guess it's a paint bucket but still the fumes are bad. better than being evaporated though I guess big man on campus. RIP stanford sam at least there's a bucket. praeses magna. "president large"? thinking about how it would be impossible to have extras for episodes 19 and 20 I like watching jack paint RIP that plant. apparently he has his powers dean walks around way too comfortably with the reaper scythe. oh but the plan has changed. did billie leave that book and nobody read it?????? dean you don't have friends, bud. yeah how did you tink you would even stand a chance, dean. this is the worst plan ever I'm so tired of seeing cas get tortured. I don't want to see billie get hurt either. is "billie" actually the empty or something "Has virtutes conliga. Eas integra. Eas firma. Nos omnes serva." = "These virtues bind. Those infected. These are strong. We keep them all." idk google translate, I feel like that may not be "infected" but more like integrity I like the effects they did on the wardings there yeah pretty much you can't stop god oh I'm real sad about that couple who vanished together :( bye charlie bye bobby. :( bye donna??? oh that like gold paint gossamer looking shit going on with billie's arm is cool god I'm glad billie smacked him in the face, dean deserves it. I just rewound it to see dean get clocked again, it's so worth it so they went back to the bunker... for what? billie can just go there. sam and jack are gonna have such a rough fucking day. all those double cheeseburgers are back for revenge on dean billie's right actually. dean always thinks the rules don't apply to him because he thinks he should be making the rules. castiel should be with jack, not with dean. fuck. can't cas still heal people the scythe on the wall is a good visual. I really like lisa berry, she does an amazing job is this the same room with the ma'lak box always happy to bleed for the winchesters. christ. fuck. even with dean's pocketknife. cas I'm so sorry. sweetheart you don't deserve this. 7B? so Jack was trapped in 5B, this is a different room but probably the same actual setpiece just rearranged do you just... have to wait her out yeah yeah dean you suck. correct, you never should've left sam and jack. wow I feel zero sympathy for dean at all. you do it to yourselllllf you do, that's what really hurts. oh baby don't summon the empty please :( I'm so glad to know that cas never told them about how he saved jack, it's none of their business yeah it would be with jack, cas. you should be with him man this is shitty. this is like a bad fanfic for real. wow these shots are like, when it cuts between them it's so obvious these were not the same camera lmao fuck. how many takes was this god i hate dean. he has not done this for love. dean is a spiteful person. "you're the most caring man on earth" literally kill me. I want to die. jesus fuck. i want to be dead this is awful this sucks this actually really hurts. this sucks so much. dean you squandered this angel's life. now jack has no father. i hate you dean winchester. i hate you. you don't deserve cas loving you jack knows, jack can feel it. I hate hate hate hate hate hate that jack is left alone with the winchesters. i hate this. jesus fuck i hate this so much i hate this jack sweetheart I'm so sorry dean you fucking ass please pick up the fucking phone. please answer sam. i hate you god dean i hate you fuck dean you are the worst. fuck my life. fuck all this. fuck this show. i'm so angry castiel deserves so much better than this. fuck i'm so mad. why wasn't his moment of happiness knowing that JACK WASN'T GOING TO DIE. i hate this. I'm so upset. fucking shit-ass writing. and it's still not fucking canon you morons at least uh they don't have to have extras for the last two episodes? did they add that footage after? is that what got changed up? everyone's gone huh. god just. dump the show right into the trash. bye. also for fuck's sake nobody gives a fuck about jack like I didn't even know he survived. nobody cares. "sam didn't get to say goodbye" FUCKING JACK DIDN'T GET TO SAY GOODBYE fuck this so much. fuck, is dean just chuck's OC? made in his image and furious that his mini-me isn't acting the way he wants? is that why he gets exonerated at every turn? "all the evil shit you did is fine dean you're the MOST LOVING AND THE BESTEST EVER!!!" fuuuuuck

[ephemeral-afterlight]

Day 17: “Stay With Me”

(This may be the end.)

Whumptober 2019 Day 17: “Stay With Me”

Word Count: 1527

Relationships: Logince

Warnings: Major character death, fatal injury/wound, blood, collapsed building, cursing

A/N: so.... superhero au, anyone? this is early today! hopefully this is some Good Pain™ to satisfy y’all uwu

Logan isn’t supposed to be here. Logan is supposed to be at home, safely doing work at his desk, stubbornly staying up for his boyfriend even as he’s falling asleep where he stands. Logan’s supposed to be curled up into the couch, small and soft as he waits sleepily for Roman to walk through the door, buried under a warm blanket with the television quietly playing in the background. Logan’s supposed to be eating the terrible spaghetti Roman made last night, grateful and endeared by his care even while met with his boyfriend’s amateur cooking skills. Logan’s supposed to be safe.

But Prince swoops in, ready to fly down into the wreckage of the collapsed building to search for injured citizens and carry them to safety, and he spots Logan. Logan, who is supposed to be at home, he’s supposed to be at home, and instead, he’s holding a sobbing little girl in his arms as he stumbles his way out of the dust through large chunks of debris. Roman feels panic shoot through him, a sharp, electric rush that sends his heart leaping into his throat. It takes longer than he’d like to admit to snap out of his stupor, hastily flying down to them as the crying child is taken from Logan’s arms by a firefighter.

Roman ignores the shouts, blocks out every “Prince!” and “Prince will help us!” as he glides down to the ground, ready to swoop Logan up and admonish him later in a place that isn’t so public. But then, his feet touch the ground, concrete poking his soles through the fabric of his supersuit, and Logan sways where he stands. It takes every bit of Roman’s self control not to shout as he dashes forward, snatching up his beloved before he can hit the ground. Once the younger man is firmly in his grip, Roman floats to rest on a chunk of flat concrete, gingerly holding and supporting Logan in his arms. Roman boasts an impassive face even as he can feel panic rising like a cacophony in his chest, flooding his torso while he surveys the damage.

Logan’s glasses are cracked, bent from the force exerted on them. He’s covered head-to-toe in dirt and pieces of debris, shards of rock and concrete stuck in the multiple lacerations littered all over his open skin. His clothing is ripped and torn, and his hair is mussed and tangled, and Roman wants to scream and yell and hit something because why is Logan not at home?

“Lo,” Roman murmurs, careful to keep his voice low enough that none of the civilians and first responders milling about can hear his words. Logan’s lashes flutter, eyes tired and heavy, and his head lolls to the side like dead weight. More panic shoots through Roman at this, but he keeps as collected as he can. He needs to get Logan to a hospital, needs to make sure he’s okay. “Hey, baby, stay awake for me, okay? We’re gonna get you to a hospital and patch you up, but you can’t fall asleep on me.”

Logan’s eyes open a little wider, and they swivel around in an attempt to find Roman’s own. His gaze is sad, subdued when they meet, and Roman doesn’t like the dread that’s slowly beginning to wash over him. Logan’s mouth opens, lips cracked and dry and split with blood, and his tiny voice falls out of his throat. The words are gravelly, and Roman has to lean in to hear him, and what he hears makes his heart skip a beat. “No… Ro, ‘m not… got hurt. St’m’ch… hurts. Wanna… go home.”

As the last words register, Logan eyes get misty, and he wears a scared frown that makes him look young, so young, too young for this. And he is. He’s supposed to graduate soon, and he’s been working toward his Master’s for so long. Roman’s been there with him through it all, and he’s never run out of support to give. Logan’s supposed to be successful. They’re supposed to live a long life together, with Logan studying astronomy and Roman continuing to sing on stage, setting aside time to save people’s lives under his alter ego. They’re supposed to be happy, so why is Logan here, now, softly whimpering as Roman finally feels the blood he was ignorant toward the existence of soak through his supersuit and touch his abdomen?

With another burst of adrenaline fueled by terror and pure dread, Roman pulls back, ignores Logan’s whine with a lump in his throat as he finally lifts the tattered button-up to inspect his boyfriend’s torso. Roman sucks in a painful breath as he immediately sees the gaping, bloody wound, a long gash that’s coated and dripping in red claret. This… this is too much. It’s too deep, they’ll-- they’ll never be able to--

“Look, baby,” Roman says, croaky voice choked with tears as he points upward at the night sky. Logan follows his boyfriend’s direction through his own tears, the stars shining in the beautiful, beautiful eyes that Roman loves so fucking much. There’s so much wonder in the younger man’s eyes, even as he’s bleeding out, dying dying-- and he watches the stars and the moon and the news helicopters above with a detached sadness.

“W’sh… wish I could’a… could’a been to space. It was… a’ways… my dream…” Logan says, quiet and slurred and defeated, and Roman can’t stifle the loud sob that tumbles off of his tongue. He doesn’t care anymore. His baby is hurt. He’s dying and the newscasters and civilians and paramedics and everyone else in the world doesn’t exist, has never existed.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Lo, I wish I could go back and take you to space, take you wherever you want to go. You can’t-- y-you shouldn’t-- you don’t deserve for it to stop here. You’re too young, baby, please, I’m sorry, please don’t leave me,” Roman says, and he finally breaks. His words come out between hiccupped sobs, choked cries through a thickened tone. Logan’s eyes slide back over to land on Roman again, considerably slower this time, waning as his gaze is distant and the rise and fall of his chest is nearly invisible.

“Don’t… cry. I… I’love you Roman. St… Stay w’th me?” Logan mumbles, barely intelligible over the noise around them, and his sweet, resigned words send a fresh wave of tears leaking over Roman’s cheeks. With all of his cares thrown to the wind, Roman releases his transformation, finally able to just be himself with the one he loves. Now without the supersuit in the way, Roman cradles Logan’s face in his bare, trembling hands, just the two of them existing together even over the new wave of shocked commotion from the bystanders around them.

“Of course I’ll stay, Logan, I’ll never leave you. Never. I love you so much, so fucking much, baby. I’m so sorry, Lo, I love you,” Roman blubbers, laying kisses upon cracked lips, tears streaming and mixing with Logan’s blood to leave a metallic tang in his mouth. He couldn’t care less.

“Roman?! The famous singer Roman is also our superhero, Prince? Talk about a double life!”

“How can he do that? It’s like magic…”

“Should I ask for an autograph?”

“Shut up and leave him alone! Can’t you see that guy’s dying?!”

“No way… is that… like, his lover?”

“Oh, fuck. That’s his boyfriend, isn’t it...”

“Shit…"

“What about paramedics? Can’t they save him?!”

“No, it’s far too late. Can’t you see the wound on his stomach? He’ll bleed out before they can even do anything.”

“But… Prince saves us every day. There’s... there’s nothing that we can do?”

So many voices, people talking, conversations all around, probing and pressing and Roman slams his head into the concrete. He doesn’t mind the pain, doesn’t care that he’s going to have a massive headache later. He just wants the voices to stop, the ringing to cease. Wiping away the blood on his forehead, he leans down over Logan again, strokes his cheek. Logan smiles, weak and small and barely there, and Roman kisses him hard.

Even now, on the edge of death, Logan lets out the prettiest sigh, is just barely able to reach up and grasp Roman’s shirt with a couple fingers. Even now, he’s still loving, wanting, pleased. Even now, in this situation, Logan is so fucking beautiful, and Roman can’t stop sobbing into his boyfriend’s mouth, crying as he clutches his lover close. He doesn’t have time. He doesn’t have time.

But then Logan’s fingers are loosening their grip on his t-shirt, and his arms fall heavily to his sides. Roman jolts up, alarmed, and cradles his boyfriend’s head in his hands. Logan’s head lolls when it’s not being supported, so Roman uses his hands as a mount to keep him upright. Another tear slips out of Logan’s eye, glistening under the starlight, and he lets out an inaudible sigh.

“L’ve you… Ro.”

Logan's breathing slows to a stop, and his mouth parts slightly, and his movement stills, and his eyes dim. 

Roman throws his head back and wails.

[serenagaywaterford]

It’s aggravating to see aunt Lydia get some sort of redemption arc both in the new book (Why, Margaret?!), and possibly in season 4. She should be the last person to get it, as far as I am concerned. She is a real believer, the only one who’s totally devoted to Gilead, 100%. Not even Fred, or other commanders, and certainly not Serena. Yet, people scream bloody murder if there is even a hint of Serena turning to the good side. But they want it for aunt Lydia, fuck’em!

RIGHT?!

Without going into how bad a book The Testaments is (cos, lbr, it isn’t a good novel), I was just SO disappointed that even Atwood went that route. I mean, it was a bit obvious that Miller wanted to soften Lydia and that absolutely atrocious, nonsensical, bullshit S3 episode was proof of that (and what an insult to Ann Dowd tbh. She deserved so much better).

I literally cannot buy any of the “Aunt Lydia isn’t THAT bad! She’s not like Serena! She just a true believer!”

And...???

I don’t see how she’s not worse than Serena? The only thing people seem to think about is 2x10. 

“Well, Aunt Lydia didn’t help Fred pregnancy-rape June!” 

No, she didn’t. That’s right.

She just chained her up in a basement, force fed her, and threatened her with death over and over and over until she completely broke her psychologically and made her into a walking zombie-womb to serve her One True Purpose -- to such a degree that even Serena (Serena! The one who wanted a perfect obedient Handmaid!) is like, “WTF?! This is too much, yo. Where my snarky baby factory at?” 

She beat and maimed other women in front of June as payback because she knew she couldn’t touch her. (Hmm, familiar? Except Serena slapped Rita. Aunt Lydia literally burned Alma’s arm over open flame.)

She took Janine’s EYE for merely talking back(!), and Lilly’s TONGUE, and attempted to get the Handmaid’s to murder Janine themselves. She’s had June’s feet lashed so hard she can’t walk--MULTIPLE TIMES. And those are only the abuses we know about. But, no, she didn’t help any husband rape June, that’s true. 

“UWU LYDIA! She’d never suggest such a thing like Serena did!” 

No, she wouldn’t but not because she cares about JUNE lolololol; she cares about the BABY and it is a terrible idea medically for a healthy birth (which is incidentally why I don’t buy that whole 2x10 episode. Serena’s disgusting and furious but she’s not fucking stupid.) That is all Lydia is concerned about. That is her validation and her raison d’etre; if she doesn’t produce obedient Handmaids that give men healthy babies, she’s failed. And I don’t believe that it’s entirely fear that motivates her. She seems to get a very clear sort of power trip and glee from exercising such brutality on young women. Hence, her attitude and acceptance towards how the system treated Natalie. Babies above all! Fuck women, they’re literally just machines. They are BROOD MARES.

“Aunt Lydia didn’t hold June down to be raped every month!”

No, she didn’t. That’s right.

She just trained 100s or 1000s of girls with brutal torture to lie down and take it. She fully supports the Ceremony. Fully. 100%. Even horrible Serena hates it and VISIBLY is uncomfortable with it (but she’s a selfish, delusional coward with anger & jealousy issues so she abides it).

Absolutely everything else Serena has done, short of writing an anti-feminist book and making speeches pre-Gilead, Aunt Lydia has also done. Randomly beat June? Check. Lock June in a room? Check. Scream at June? Check. Uphold the ideals of Gilead? Check. Aunt Lydia ACTIVELY abused, tortured, maimed, bullied, and straight up murdered numerous women. Not just one or two. How many Handmaids has she “trained”? COUNTLESS. Without a hint of remorse. Sometimes she has a soft spot for Janine, or very occasionally, June, but mostly she seems to just treat them as her troublesome pets. Like cattle--to the point of literally using a cattle prod on disobedient ones. A farmer can care about his cattle but it doesn’t make him not a farmer.

Hell, there’s that episode in S1 where Lydia is beating/electrocuting the shit out of June for talking back and Serena swoops in to stop the assault. (Her motives are shitty, and she snaps back to own horrid self not long after, but still...)

Yeah, considering they’re reworking S4 to be more in line with The Testaments is just... sad. Not that we didn’t see them attempting to woobiefy Lydia in S3 already, but I will guess S4 will see her suddenly and randomly taking Handmaids’ concerns seriously. HOW OOC IS THAT? Like, there’s been NO emotional journey for Lydia. It’s why her behaviour in 3x06 didn’t make sense to me. She goes from savagely assaulting Janine in 3x04 to “Oooh, June! This muzzle is so sad! Alexa, play Despacito!” I didn’t buy ANY of Lydia’s randomly swerving and flaky narrative in S3. I have no problem with her expressing her humanity and the audience seeing reasons to sympathize with her (like 2x08) but it was SO ALL OVER THE PLACE in S3 that I can only shudder and how they’re going to do S4. Especially using The Testaments as a roadmap... like suddenly Lydia is a resistance fighter?

Give me a fucking break.

And I think the problem I have with giving Lydia the so-called “redemption arc” on THT is that...

I don’t care.

Who really does?

Lydia is at best a secondary character who has had zero to little development. She’s literally had one (terrible) background episode that was shitty and full of sexist tropes, that only went to show what a snivelling, vengeful, crazy religious bigot she is--and that’s supposed to set her up for THT Redemption™? Suddenly she’s going to switch sides, just like that? Because White Saviour June has spoken to her? (Again, don’t get me started on the sheer idiocy of June (the woman (directly/indirectly) responsible for multiple women DYING in S3 alone) being touted as some precious saviour of women on Jesus-like levels.) Aunt Lydia is magically going to see the light of her wrongdoing?

PLEASE.

And meanwhile, they had a female character who is also a monster on about the same level--just in a different way, who is arguably a lead character and has had PLENTY of background and development, and even started--a few times--down a path that could slowly and ORGANICALLY lead her to remorse and change, and ultimately something vaguely like a redemption arc... but nope! LMAO. PSYCHE!!! Too easy, I guess? Too predictable? 

Yes, because I watch THT to be shocked by the unpredictable... /sarcasm. C’mon.

Why bother giving Serena ANY sort of development just to do her so dirty like S3 did, and switch it up so she stays repulsive but AUNT LYDIA MAGICALLY and OUT OF NOWHERE suddenly changes all her long-held and incredibly cemented beliefs? Meanwhile we’ve seen Serena wavering in hers THE ENTIRE SERIES. We’ve seen her try to break the system, to fight against it. Weakly, and she’s a sissy, but hey, it’s SOMETHING. More than we ever saw with Lydia.

No, giving Janine a nicer eyepatch after YOU RIPPED HER EYEBALL OUT FOR TALKING BACK is NOT the same as Serena standing up in front of a council of men and reading in order to give all females the chance to read. Giving Janine a piece of cake for not making a scene at a gala is NOT the same as Serena giving “her” baby away to make sure she has a better life outside the hellscape that she knows is Gilead. What Aunt Lydia has done for “her girls” pales completely with what very little Serena has done for both June, Nichole, and women (/herself lol).

It’s like saying Fred deserves redemption because he let the Handmaids have devilled eggs in 3x04. Or gave June a photo of Hannah. (Which incidentally, Atwood wrote Serena giving that to June. So, let’s just keep taking things away from Serena, Miller. Good job.)

I just......

I...

No.

Aunt Lydia deserves a redemption arc as much as Fred Waterford does. But even Fred--yes, even Fred--has more substantial character development to sustain such a story, and a shift in his arc. Well, I should say nobody “deserves” a redemption arc. But rather, it makes SENSE for a particular character to experience one.

Honestly, I just don’t understand the flagrant Serena hate when people like Fred and Lydia exist. I don’t see why it makes more sense and is less offensive for either of those monsters to get this mythical redemption arc over Serena, the second most developed character in the entire series.

“We need a foil for June! We need her to have a villain to fight against!” 

Yes, I agree, dipshit, it’s called Gilead. It’s called female oppression. It’s called the inherent rampant violent misogyny there, and even in “normal” society. It’s the stealing of children. It’s every man in any position of power. It’s religious and ideological extremism. It’s the commodification of women’s bodies as machines for baby-making and male sexual gratification. It’s the Sons of Jacob. It’s international governmental complacency. It’s war.

THERE ARE SO MANY EVIL, VILLAINOUS THINGS IN THT. Serena does personify some of these things, sure. So do ALL the other characters everyone is less upset about getting redemption arcs. But Serena doesn’t need to be the be-all of all these things. She doesn’t have to be the visceral manifestation of all those things forever.

Okay, I just have to stop here cos I can go on forever. 

To me, it’s only makes narrative sense for Serena--and ONLY Serena--to get this highly-prized yet still completely imaginary THT Redemption Arc™. And that’s my controversial opinion lol.

[grandfangarbagechan]

another dumb “this fic made me mad but i don’t want to be mean to the author” rant

i just saw someone deadass write bakugo getting his bedroom door taken away, and he and his father barricading themselves in the bathroom to hide from his mother (Masaru even says he has snacks stashed there specifically for this) and present that as a reasonable punishment.

like. the teachers find out that he used to bully deku and they decide that the issue needs to be dealt with. so they deal with the issue by suspending him for two weeks, suspending him from hero training when he comes back, making him write an apology letter, anger management classes, and also keeping him from interacting with Deku in the present, which makes no fucking sense to me. 

this fic explicitly takes place after the two of them have started to rebuild their friendship. By not just their own admission, but the admission of basically every teacher, their relationship has gotten much better than it was at the start of the year. i could understand assuming that this relationship is not a problem they can solve on their own, but the decisions made make no fucking sense? Bakugou can’t sit near Izuku, can’t interact with him, and can barely look at him. but this isn’t an issue they’ve had at UA. Yes, Bakugou does have some hostility problems, but even within this fic they have never had an issue while sitting in class and Izuku himself never expressed discomfort with it.

Especially fucking annoying was the way they told him his punishments. They had All Might be the one to tell him, specifically to hurt him. The man who has, multiple times, been mistaken for Deku’s dad. All Might spends the entire fucking meeting glaring at him, talking down to him, and then gets uppity when Bakugou doesn’t want to be called “my boy”. Like. Hmm, I wonder why someone that you’re literally only here to draw an emotional reaction from would have an emotional reaction. Wonder why. 

Just. Every single punishment given to Bakugou seemed designed to set him back in his development. Like oh, you can’t train, you can’t even come to school, so you’re going to be behind everyone else, you’re being punished harshly for something you did before you became a better person as though no one thinks you’ve changed, we’re going to threaten to expel you multiple times without ever addressing your legitimate concerns that if we do that you might get kidnapped again, and we expect you to be grateful that we’ve dragged you here to sit you down and tell you what a terrible child you are. This fic tries so hard to convey Katsuki as someone undeserving of sympathy while also making me feel terrible for him.

Especially when he tries to explain “hey, I wasn’t the only person doing this, you can’t blame literally all of Izuku’s trauma on me. Literally even the teachers were in on it, the entire school was. it wasn’t just me” and All Might looks this 15 year old boy (who is literally on the verge of tears and periodically lashing out because he’s been backed into a corner by people he trusted) directly in the eye and basically says, “no, see, actually you were the leader and they all listened to you because of your quirk so it’s your fault”

he has no proof that this is the case. i don’t even think izuku said that. but he just says “it was you, go fuck yourself” even when presented with the information that teachers in their elementary and middle school egged him on.

not to mention the same fic later does the whole, “all might only said izuku can’t be a hero because he’s a big dumb meanie who only knows how to punch good and literally nothing else about being a hero despite being a top ranked hero. He’s a just a fucking moron and not at all formerly quirkless kid who would have been told the same thing in a universe you’ve basically stated sees that as a disability, and not a man who had grown disillussioned with the whole hero industry, and not an experienced hero that’s been in the industry for decades. no, see, all might doesn’t know about my oc, this fuck-off obscure underground hero from fucking France, and had never heard of Eraserhead, a man who goes out of his way to prevent people from hearing about him, so obviously he doesn’t know shit about shit.

I’ve already gone into detail about how much this pisses me off. Like, oh, Aizawa knows better because after having known Izuku for months he thinks he could totally be a quirkless hero. It’s not like the Izuku he knows learned and grew directly as a result of All Might training him and giving him a quirk. Izuku without a quirk might not have passed the entrance exam, and even if he got into gen ed he still wouldn’t be in the hero course at this point. fuck you. Fuck. You. 

I physically cannot tell you how much i wanted toshinori to clap back with something like “what the fuck do you know about being quirkless? do you know how people treat you? do you know how much people look down on you? they treat you like you have a disease. in my day UA wouldn’t even allow quirkless student to take the entrance exam. do you think he would have ever made it in without a quirk? UA would accept him with open arms? he’d get internships? he’d get a licence?" you can’t just go out of your way to express that the world discriminates against a group and then pretend the only other person from that group has never experienced that discrimination. and having aizawa speak unchecked about struggles he’s never fucking had and the way quirkless people get treated to a man who was once quirkless and whose entire identity is now tied up in a quirk he no longer has is fucking ludicrous. you think you know better about being quirkless than he does?

Even if this Aizawa grew up in an abusive household, he still has a quirk. He has never been quirkless. He does not know what it’s like. His experiences, while valuable in helping him to empathize with Izuku’s struggle as a quirkless kid, are not the same, and they’re certainly not a closer match than those of the quirkless man he is talking down to.

I can accept some stuff like “oh, all might should have worked with him on his quirk more, and maybe told his teachers that he was a late bloomer so he could get some one on one training.” I cannot accept “actually all might is stupid and dumb and aizawa would have been a much better dad”. I get that you want to fuck him, we all do, that’s fine, but could you maybe get off his dick long enough to smell the roses?

I just. Physically cannot handle characters being treated unfairly being presented as though it’s justice. It’s not. I get it, you think Izuku is a little green bean uwu baby and aizawa is the only man on earth deserving of being his dad, and all might’s a stupid moron who doesn’t know anything about being a hero and bakugou is a sack of shit former bully so it’s fine for him to be unfairly punished by adults who are biased against him and basically refuse to listen to anything he says because they believe they have the whole story. I know you think, “actually all might should have said yes!” is a super hot take. But like. It’s not.

Not everyone can be a hero. Not everyone is suited. Not everyone has the dedication. Not everyone has the ability. Pretending that quirks have nothing to do with whether you can be a hero is ridiculous. Could he basically be Batman? Sure. Maybe. He is a shonen protag. But Izuku had at that point done absolutely nothing to show he was capable of that.

“Oh, but his analysis would be so useful!” Sure would be nice if he actually mentioned that to All Might. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t mention a damn thing that makes him useful, doesn’t mention literally any strength at all. He just says “hey All Might, I think you’re super neato! Can I be like you just by trying really hard?” Izuku at this point is a skinny little nerd with no sense of self-preservation. He literally grabbed on to All Might’s leg as he was about to launch himself across the city. It would be irresponsible on so many levels for All Might to tell this kid to pursue such a dangerous career just to make him feel better.

I’m not going to link the fic that inspired this because I really don’t want the author’s feelings to be hurt. And honestly a lot of this is just my general feeling about this trope where authors expect me to believe that the man who’s topped the hero rankings for over a decade is actually a stupid dumb dumb and knows nothing about being a hero.

[reddpropaganda]

I gotta say I’m still fucking upset over the Kaneki x Touka hookup. I don’t follow the series closely since it’s triggering for me but, I know just enough about it. I know everyone’s buttmad because they didn’t make Kaneki gay with Hide or whatever (and honestly it WOULD be better because at least he treats Hide with a modicum of respect)

But I don’t give half an asscheek about that. I’m upset for a different reason. It entirely pisses me the hell off because they are in no way a good match for eachother. And I’m by no means saying Touka is a perfect person that’s done nothing wrong uwu, but Kaneki is a piece of shit that deserves absolutely nothing. Especially not her. I wasn't very into the fandom but this just made me say "nope! I'm done."

It legit makes me sick, disturbed even because of how emotionally abusive Kaneki is. He constantly lies, doesn’t let anyone in, only cares about himself and what will benefit him, has no empathy, never takes into account other people’s feelings and is basically like a freaking sociopath in how he manipulates people– including Touka.

He straight up abandons her multiple times and proves to her he’s shitty but she just keeps believing in the good in him because she wants happiness for him, for both of them. Let me tell you, I’ve been there. And it is not fun to fall in love with someone who is not there. The idea of someone, who they could be, but aren’t.

The instability and how draining it is will destroy you from the inside out and it will burn slowly like acid, hallowing out your insides. When it’s hot, passion will burn though you with such fiery intensity it’ll leave you dry, gasping for air. And when it’s cold, it’s the worst frigid cold you’ve ever had to endure; isolated, feeling the bitter frostbite shutting your systems down.

And they’re just trying to play it off like “aww, Touka is so maternal and caring that she just can’t stop loving him unconditionally no matter what he puts her through! He’s her only weakness~ and Kaneki’s never had love like this before so they’re perfect!” like, no.

Their relationship dynamic is incredibly damaging and toxic. It’s unhealthy and unsustainable. That shit doesn’t need to be glorified. But the creator isn’t portraying it in a negative light but poetically. It’s fucking disgusting and I’m utterly appalled. Though, I guess it’s like most things in this trainwreck of a series.

Yes, the two would hypothetically make a great couple! That is, if Kaneki actually had the balls to be that person for Touka but we all know he’s too much of a coward. No amount of love from Touka can make him change unless he wanted to. So, I have a really horrible feeling it’s priming up to lead her to a very vulnerable place emotionally then utterly crushing her for the sake of “plot.”

Which, no matter what route you take with this it’s shitty fucking writing. At this point, if Kanecuck were to suddenly try to be a better person and grow with Touka it’d be jarringly ooc. Other options include:

B) The overplayed generic trope that a woman must bear the largest brunt and toll in a one-sided relationship in order to keep a man happy/successful. Still no repercussions for Kaneki’s actions thus far.

C) He was using her all along, big dramatic reveal that doesn’t surprise anyone and only serves to show how gullible Touka is so we sympathize with the poor, dumb, tricked girl who loved him so, so much :( Also ooc.

Like, Touka is an extremely intelligent and strong character? She is not that stupid to continue loving someone that doesn’t care about her. Have her learn. Where’s the final straw? It doesn’t make sense. It’s almost flanderization. Have her get over him and move on and make Kaneki realize what an ass he’s been. She should kill him irdc. Something other than this. Kaneki basically owes her his life and this fool wanna act fresh.

She deserves better y'all wyd. Au's are cool and all but canon is thoroughly fucked lol.